Studio portrait of 294 Able Seaman (AB) William George Vincent Williams, AN&MEF. The first recorded Australian casualty of the First World War, AB Williams died on 11 September 1914 on HMAT Berrima, after receiving wounds from German sniper fire during the seizure of a German wireless station at Rabaul, New Britain. Born in Richmond, Vic, on 24 November 1885, Williams was a Melbourne City Council employee prior to his enlistment in the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF).